Help Save the West's Wild Places

Western states like Utah and Alaska still have a lot of undeveloped public land. There's a move afoot that will change this irreversibly. If you think there's been enough development of the public lands check this out and send a comment. Enough folks speaking out might protect these lands as they are.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Attention: AD50 / Western public lands giveaway

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I write today to lodge my objection to your proposals to amend part 1860, subpart 1864 of title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The proposals you've made will facilitate transfer of federal lands claimed by the state of Utah, Alaska, and others to those entities. I feel there is currently insufficient protection for these wild places, largely in the western states, and your proposal would weaken existing protection by making it easy for the federal government to give away these lands to the states. The states have made it clear they consider these disputed lands theirs under federal RS2477, a law repealed in 1976. These claims are to "highways" used by local people. Well we've seen some of these so-called "highways" and you can too at http://www.suwa.org/1866/trees.html and http://www.suwa.org/1866/eroded.html. These pictures show at least some of the disputed lands are not highways at all but rather part of the wild lands of Utah. They should remain that way. The state of Alaska is laying claim to almost a million miles of such highway rights-of-way that cross national parks and wildlife refuges. Entities interested in changing the status of these lands should instead concentrate on proper administration of lands already under their control. If these lands are transfered to the state or to local counties there is no doubt roads will be bulldozed all over them.

We are losing the wild character of the west, inch by inch, year in and year out to development. The buffalo herds, wolf packs and black footed ferret colonies are largely gone. Prairie dog colonies are a fraction of their former numbers. Pronghorn antelope aren't in many of the places they could easily be found 100 years ago. We are steadily losing the western ecology and this proposal promises to accelerate that process. We don't want to lose anymore. Kill this proposal and instead get on with the work of preserving the last great parts of the west.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
April 04, 2002


Background Information

The federal Bureau of Land Management is proposing changes to federal law that will allow it to give away some of America's most beautiful and pristine wild lands. The states of Utah and Alaska are leading the charge to get their hands on some of these lands and open them to development.

Utah has insisted it owns some 10,000 tracks, trails, paths and portions of streambeds crisscrossing federal public land in some of Utah's most wild places including parts of national parks and lands proposed for wilderness designation in America's Redrock Wilderness Act. The state of Alaska is laying claim to almost a million miles of such highway rights-of-way many of which would cross national parks and wildlife refuges. For a map of potential Alaskan roads, visit http://www.conservationgiscenter.org/maps/html/rs2477.html.

Conservation groups say many of the so-called roads claimed by the state are nothing more than paths used by animals or dirt bike tracks running in seasonally dry steam beds. Consistent with the theory that a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words, see http://www.suwa.org/1866/trees.html for some examples of these so called "highways".

The BLM proposal would clear the way for the White House to hand over ownership of these disputed lands to the states or private interests while circumventing the current procedure for processing such claims, which is through open court with full disclosure and opportunity for public participation. In fact, the proposed regulations expand the situations under which the federal government might give away the land, from recognizing the valid title of another person to giving away federal land to anyone (including a state or local government) based only on their alleged "interest" in the land.

The federal government is taking written comments from the public on the proposed rule until April 23, 2002.

For more background on this issue, visit these parts of Earthjustice's website: http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=335 http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=254

The proposed rule in the federal register can be viewed at: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&docid=02-4137-filed